Sunday, January 8, 2012

Steampunk/Romance/Murder/Mystery

Ok yeah that's a mouthful. I know it sounds kind of odd too. But all those are valid descriptions of what the book I'm blogging today is about. I decided I wanted to start looking into a variety of types of books, and explore outside my "zone" of horror and fantasy.

Viridis
Calista Taylor
330 pages

"A Steampunk Romance"

Interestingly this book starts off describing a mans dead body, and the place where the detective presumes he had spent his last hours before his death. It may not be a new idea, but it's nice to have the period style descriptions. Not only that her presentation of t he period, and the steampunk technology is lovely.

Viridis, in the book, is not just the name of a club, It's also the name of a non-alcoholic herbal concoction. It's described at least twice, and it's affects are also described thoroughly. It's the wonderful detail throughout the whole piece though that helps guide the readers imagination to set up the vibrant colorful character filled environment.

The language is beautiful, helping to make the characters believable and life like. A polished piece as a whole, its pacing varies. The content though keeps the reader interested, giving them a reason to continue reading. You learn about the difference between classes, and how it's causing rifts in society. It's almost a social commentary piece, what with the ideas of tinkerers and lords, and them not seeing eye to eye. Oh and the government issues as well! Secret service type stuff, it's great!

The end is very unsuspecting, and as a spoiler alert, you may not want to continue past here.
I was intrigued that the author used a gay couple as a focal point. At least, the alternative lifestyle turned out to be the reasoning. The matter of accepting people for who they are is what was the driving part of the whole book.

So, my end thought is that this is a wonderful read for a mature audience. Yes there is sex. Yes there is violence. But the details, the full world is fantastic.

Well, we're going to get back on the ball now I think ^_^ Hope you read something great this weekend!

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